St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-09-15


paid by others it is great gain to the bust.
ness public. 1t is an advanced point gained
and ought to be the basis for improvements
rather than to be abolished because OF its
imperfection. That Irregularities and in
justice may be done by the present adjust
ment may be true, but it is manifestly easier
to improve the adjustment than to devise a
wholly new basis and new adjustment
both. The assertion than carload rates in
volve loss of revenue to the roadstwithout
corresponding reduction of the cost of
service is erroneous. AS above shown, IL
does not in the first place involve loss of
revenue, and in the second place it is
much less expensive to move property in car
loads-sin through trains and then loaded and
unloaded by the shippers than to move it in
local trains-the condition under which less
than carload quantities are moved-and
when loading and unloading is done by the
companies at their own expense.
The reference TO the Lake Shore and Stand
ard Oil companies transactions is unfortu
nate for your petitioners, as that involved
the practice of secret rebates, nor operates
force in the document before you favors
the rebate practice, which your petitioners
enjoyed the benefit of, as against open
handed and fair dealing Transportation in
carloads being done at less expense to the
companies than in less than carload quaint
ties, as we have shown, we hold that equal
ity and justice to shippers demand that a
less proportionate charge be made, and that
pers are placed upon an equality upon these
public highways.
Another proposition to which we desire to
invite attention is the assertion that carload
rates operate to deprive small dealers of an
advantage of the competition of one large
dealer with another and of one trade center
with another. That it does the former, we
deny, for more than one large dealer in every
line exists in every Western distributing cen
ter. That it has the second effect we freely
admit, but it has this effect not by debarring
the small dealer from doing business in any
center but by making it more to his advan-
tage to do business with the one nearest. For
the benefit denied greater is substituted and
the denial is effected only by such substitu-
ton. The dealer is under no compulsion to
make his purchases in any particular center,
and makes them where it is most to his adj
vantage. Carload rates enable small dealers
to supply themselves from the nearest whole
siier. at shor; distances and in short time, so
enabling them to do much larger and
mora profitable business with less capital
They thus increase the volume of business
III proportion TO the capital employed which
IS beneficial instead of detrimental to the
country. Their abolition would greatly III
crease the cost of distributing merchandise
from Western centers by adding the cost of
transportation, or it would force all small
dealers to do business with the large centers
of the East, which would retard exchange
and require much increased capital for the
same volume of business. Either result
would be detrimental and not beneficial to
the country.
Carload rates promote the growth of trad
ing centers in the West thus providing the
purchasers with markets at short distances,
from which supplies may be received quickly
and provide the necessary baais for manufac-
turing, which cannot prosper except in or
adjacent to a distributing center of
sufficient magnitude to absorb and distribute
the product They are therefore benefit in
promoting the progress of the West and in
creasng the wealth and prosperity of the
whole country, and their abolition instead of
removing detrimental circumstance would
itself be a detriment of a serious character.
Carload rates reduce the cost of distrib-
uting the cheap products of the country,
which constitutes the necessaries of life, and
so secure wider distribution and more gen.
eral comfort and welfare of the people, and
being based upon principles of equity and
justice to all shippers, as we have shown,
and as between railroads and shippers.
ought, We maintain, to be continued, and the
prayer of your petitioners ought to be denied
1t Will be noticed that the remonstrance is
specific reply to the statements of the.
petition for the abolition of carload rates.
signed by the New York board of trade and
transportation, the st. Louis .grocers, and the
Dean. in the brief remarks he made when
he finished reading the remQpstapce, said he
was aware that it had furnished the petition
ers- with the arguments of the jobbers.
Judge Cooley then gave the assurance that
to reply at the formal hearing Other re-
monstrances were read by j. M. Patterson,
from the Kansas City jobbers; W. F. Gritfiths
commissioner of the Omaha freight bureau
W. II. Torbet, of the Jobbers and Manufac
turers' union of Iowa; Joseph Clark, at La
Crosse. circumstances were also presented
from the jobbers of Lincoln, Neb., the Pitts
burg wholesale merchants and shippers of
Marshalltown, TO-, the retail merchants of
Oskaloosa.
A SAMPLE REMONsTRANCE.
The protest read by George G.. Baker,
of DeS MONIES. contained many strong
points givenin the following synopsis:
of the jobbers and manufacturers of the Mis-
sissippi and Missouri valleys in convention
at Minneapolis and directed to prepare a
paper showing the common interests of the
Western manufacturers and the agricultural
interest begs leave to report. We assume
that it is the best interest of every city and
community, as well as of the agricultural in
terests of the entire country, that the manu-
faeturers of the country should be SO dis
tributed as to be brought into as close prox-
unity with the producers as possible. There
is not city, barely town of any import
ance, with any degree Of enterprise,
that will not far gladly we1eoms and
in inducing manufactures to locate in their
midst. This fact is probable and the reasons
may be stated in few words.
First-The wealth and prosperity of such
a community is increased. Every artisan
or labOring man represents at least three per-
sons. These persons form part of the COM
munity. They build houses, increase the mer-
chandise of traffic and consume the products
of the soil. These are some of the main ele
ments of prosperity and success. The more
of the articles used or consumed near the
place of production the greater is the per
cent. of saving both to the producers ana
consumers, and consequently the greater is
hn ifx- mr. or,iH &c tha n
velOpment of the community so favored. AS
an illustration, the Iowa farmer raises the
produce for the market. If he can
find a market he invariably receives a
better remuneration for his labor than by
reaching market over many miles of trans
portation. So with the purchaser If the
article wanted can be manufactured near by
he will naturally buy the cheaper than if the
article pays large per cent. of the cost in
sportation.
Second-Our social relations are natural
factors in our progress. By the accumula-
ton of large numbers of laborers, mechanics
and artisans in the large manufacturing dis
tricts, discord, discomfort and anarchism pre-
vail. Were the manufacturing interests more
generally distributed this would be greatly
lessened.
Assuming, then, that it is for the best in
terests OF the manufacturing interests of the
country should be generally distributed, we
are brought to consider the influence the
transportation problem bears to the subject.
We cannot but conclude that large per cent
of the transportation companies are disposed
to favor the Capitalization of these interests
at the large terminal centers The longer
haul of both the manufactured article to the
consumer as well as the product of the farm
to the manufacturing districts, naturally in
creases the business of the roads and makes
more remunerative the investments in these
enterprises. 1t can therefore be assumed that
the railroads will use every advantage to the
consummation of this object.
The difference in the car load rate and the
greater the loss than the carload rate is the
measure of equalization to great extent be-
tween the eastern and western trade. The
result would be that all traffic would be done
on a higher scale, and the farmer, the pro-
Queer, would suffer thereby. They would
have. to pay, more for their purchases and